The Abbey Art Centre as Postwar Refuge, 1946–56 at Ben Uri Gallery

Ben Uri is delighted to announce the upcoming exhibition, The Abbey Art Centre as Postwar Refuge, 1946–56, marking the simultaneous publication of The Abbey Art Centre in postwar London 1946–1956, eds., Jane Eckette, Ian McLean and Sheridan Palmer (Routledge), this autumn.

The exhibition unfolds the remarkable story of the Abbey Art Centre, a cosmopolitan art colony established at New Barnet in 1946 by charismatic artist, gallerist and world art collector, William Ohly (1883–1955). A crucible of creativity on London’s northern edge, the Abbey was a postwar haven for stateless Jewish refugees, as well as artists from Australia, Britain and continental Europe. Ohly’s openness to outsiders extended to his dealings at the Berkeley Galleries in Mayfair, which opened in late 1941 during the Blitz and where Abbey artists occasionally exhibited, as well as Commonwealth artists and artists from Ohly’s own world art collection. The Abbey was an important seeding bed for cross-cultural and transnational modernism that proved pivotal to the careers of many artists, as they navigated the seismic political and cultural shifts taking place in the postwar and postcolonial artistic landscape in Britain and beyond.